Changing an Object’s Color

I almost did not write this chapter, as there are already many excellent books that can show you how to do incredible things with Photoshop. However, there are a few methods that I have found to be extremely useful but I have rarely, if ever, seen mentioned in any of the books I have read, so I thought it would be worthwhile to include one or two of them here.

Most Photoshop users will have already experimented with adjusting the color of an object using various methods, but in general these are somewhat hit-and-miss. There is, however, a less well-known method that allows you to accurately change the color of an object while preserving all the highlight and shadow information at the same time.

Let us take as an example an image of an airborne skateboarder. As you can see, his shirt is red (fig. 11.1).

How about if you wanted to make it a different color? And you could be very specific here, choosing an exact CMYK tint. Set it as the foreground color, then open the Layers window and create a new transparent layer. Fill it with the new foreground color (Alt + Backspace), and then select Hue as the blending mode (fig. 11.2) from the drop-down list in the Layers window.

The shirt will change color, while preserving the shadows and highlights. So, unfortunately, will everything else that had a discernible hue—but if something was a neutral color beforehand, it still is now, as this blending mode only affects things which were a discernable color. If they were neutral, they remain unchanged.

You can also use Color as the blending mode, which colors everything in the image. Color mode also tends to give less contrast between shadows and highlights.

Of course, you could create a selection of the areas you wished to change before applying the color and blending mode. Otherwise, you will now need to use either the Eraser tool, a selection, or a mask to delete the new color from the areas in which it is not needed. If you accidentally erase the new color from an area where it was wanted, simply paint it back in using the Paintbrush tool with an Opacity and Hardness of 100%. When you are happy with the result, flatten the layers and save. To see another color, repeat the operation on another new layer (fig. 11.3). You can create as many variations as you want in a single image.

The advantage of using this method over other coloring options is that you can specify an exact tint that is then the basis for the entire tonal range of the object.